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rare breed or unusual turkeys, who has what?

gem
edited January 2011 in General discussion
ive a ronquire white turkey stag at the moment, ive had royal palm and bourbon reds in the past and im also looking for wild turkey hens to breed to my ronquire.

what breeds do you have?

Comments

  • John Ryan
    edited November -1
    i have a norfolk black, didnt plan on havin turkeys but it was given me as a gift from some1 that does keep turkeys when they found out i was gettin into poultry.
  • MARIA
    edited November -1
    We dont keep turkeys but my husband has order a breeding pair of bronze. Can you keep them with hens and ducks. Ive heard there can be problems with some type of disease. And also what do they eat?
    Thanks
    Maria.
  • John Ryan
    edited November -1
    as i said i only have the 1 turkey and i didnt want her to be alone so she was raised with my hens, eats what my hens eat and sleeps where they sleep and no problems healthwise. ive heard they can get blackfoot or something like that and at one stage i thought she was coz she was very lame, turned out to be just a splinter in the sole of her foot and so it was easily fixed. only problem i have wit her is coz shes a big girl now shes a bit of a bully, even my roosters wont challenge her lol.
  • Susan Mc
    edited November -1
    Wrong end of the turkey John, it's blackhead that turkeys can catch from chickens, lol!
    I've also heard that keeping turkeys with chickens can help the chickens develop a degree of resistance to Marek's disease, which is handy for those of us who keep Sebrights or Silkies.
    My OH has been thinking of getting turkeys, but I'm not convinced. I'm worried about the noise factor, and about their ability to fly. I like the idea of keeping rare breeds, my chicken breeds are all rare, any recommendations for rare breed turkeys?
  • gem
    edited November -1
    i lost all my birds including my turkeys couple of days ago, but when i go back into turkeys im buying a pair of (american) wild turkeys, they are rare enough over here and ive only heard of 2 people who have them.... one in carrick on shannon, the other is in kilkenny i believe. heard that they are about 80 a pair and that they are a lot more wary of people than their domesticated counterpart
  • Susan Mc
    edited November -1
    Sorry to hear that Gem, rotten thing to happen.
    I think the wild turkey is quite a bit smaller than their domestic version, but would be really interesting to keep I think. I bet my John would like to keep them too, he's also interested in the red jungle fowl. I wonder how noisy they are?
    Aside from a couple of exchequer leghorn pullets I keep for eggs, I don't think our breed lists have anything in common. Best of luck re-stocking, keep us posted on how you're doing with that.
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